Transcript

Researchers at a federal lab think they might be one step closer to
understanding how urban sprawl happens. The Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:

If you can figure out why cities begin sprawling out of control, you
might be able to figure out how to better plan urban growth. That’s the
theory anyway. Based on that, researchers at the Los Alamos National
Laboratory have come up with a computer model that – based on
historical data – comes pretty close to predicting patterns of urban
sprawl. Steen Rasmussen is one of the researchers on the project. He
says in the model it comes down to terrain, what’s built on the land
right now, what’s close, and what’s within driving distance…

“And if you put that into a mathematical model, which is actually not very
much information, you get a pretty good description of what we observe
in the real world, how cities they grow and how they acquire the form they have.”

He says local planners can plug in their unique situations. But Rasmussen adds…
as long as people are making the decisions, it will be impossible to precisely predict patterns of urban sprawl.

New research could reduce the amount of fertilizer pollution coming from farms. After manure is spread onto farm fields, nutrients like phosphorus can run off into nearby lakes and streams. Too much phosphorus in the water leads to excessive plant growth, which can eventually choke out fish and other aquatic species. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Erin Toner reports:

Transcript

New research could reduce the amount of fertilizer pollution coming from farms. After manure is spread onto farm fields, nutrients like phosphorus can run off into nearby lakes and streams. Too much phosphorus in the water leads to excessive plant growth, which can eventually choke out fish and other aquatic species. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Erin Toner reports:

A researcher at Michigan State University found that treating liquid dairy manure with certain chemical compounds reduced the phosphorus load in the manure by 80 percent. The phosphorus binds to the compounds and then settles out in a solid form. Researcher Dana Kirk says the process is common at wastewater treatment plants. He says it could be expensive technology for farmers.

“The upfront costs are generally very high. If we can find ways to sell this product or put an better economic value on manure, it potentially could, you know, at least be a
break-even venture.”

Kirk says he’s working with a company to test the manure-treatment system at two farms in Michigan. He says using this treatment process to remove phosphorus from manure would have to be tailored to each individual farm.

Some drinking water from the Great Lakes may be pumped underground to help communities get through dry spells and save on construction costs. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chuck Quirmbach explains:

Transcript

Some drinking water from the Great Lakes may be pumped underground, to
help communities get through dry spells and save on construction costs. The Great
Lakes Radio Consortium’s Chuck Quirmbach reports:

The system is known as aquifer storage recovery. Treated drinking water is injected into underground aquifers and brought back up during peak demand times or dry spells.
Communities can save money by avoiding the costs of building new water towers or
expanding water treatment plants. Wisconsin will be the first state in the region to try
the concept. Jill Jonas of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources acknowledges underground contaminants like arsenic could spoil the treated drinking water.
So, she says Wisconsin will closely analyze each proposal.

“So if there’s an area that has problems with arsenic, we have to look on a case by case basis to see if the injected water actually creates more of a resource problem than was originally there.”

Illinois and Pennsylvania are also looking into aquifer storage recovery. For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Chuck Quirmbach in Milwaukee.

Canada’s environment minister is threatening action if Ontario doesn’t meet the air pollution standards set out in a treaty signed by Canada and the U.S., but as the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Karen Kelly reports – environmentalists remain skeptical that change will occur:

Transcript

Canada’s environment minister is threatening action if Ontario doesn’t meet the air pollution standards set out in a treaty signed by Canada and the U.S. But as the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Karen Kelly reports, environmentalists remain skeptical that change will occur:

Canadian environment minister David Anderson says he may take action if Ontario fails to meet the targets it agreed to under the 2000 Canada-U.S. treaty to cut ozone. The treaty requires Ontario’s power plants to cut emissions of nitrogen dioxide in half by 2007. Jerry Dimarco, a lawyer with the Sierra Legal Defense Fund, agrees that Ontario is falling short of that goal. But he says there’ve been other warnings, and little has been done.

“We’ve seen a federal environment minister who’s said the right things, in terms of telling Ontario
that they should reduce emissions. What we need is a federal environment minister who tells Ontario they must reduce emissions.”

The Canadian government currently lacks the ability to enforce clean air standards. A 1999 law grants federal officials the power to create new regulations. But they have yet to do so.

Transcript

New England often blames distant Midwest power plants for the air
pollution that blows its way. But a new study shows some of the major
air pollution in New England comes for cities a lot closer. The Great
Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:

Most researchers agree that acid rain in New England is caused by
coal-fired power plants in the Midwest. So, many folks in New England
just assumed that ozone pollution drifted in from the same place.
Preliminary data from an intensive new study by the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration indicates that’s not true. Instead,
ozone pollution appears to be coming from big east-coast cities. The
pollution drifts offshore for a while, and then is blown back over New
England by sea breezes. Jim Roberts is one of the researchers in the
study…

“This summer-time ozone problem is really going to be solved, I think,
in the New York-Boston area. It’s really not the responsibility of the Midwest.”

Roberts says the Midwest power plants are still contributing
some air pollution problems in New England… but they don’t appear to
be the chief cause of New England’s excessive ozone pollution.

For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Lester Graham.

Related Links

Dutch elm disease is killing dozens of stately old trees in the Midwest this summer. Many people say they regret losing the beautiful old trees. It changes the way a place looks and feels for years to come. Some people are willing to fight and pay to save the elm trees in one Chicago suburb. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Jody Becker reports:

Transcript

Dutch elm disease is killing dozens of stately old trees in the Great Lakes region this summer. Many people say they regret losing the beautiful old trees. It changes the way a place looks and feels for years to come. Some people are willing to fight and pay to save the elm trees in one Chicago suburb. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Jody Becker reports:

When Hollywood producers come looking for the perfect leafy suburb, they often wind up in Evanston, Illinois. This summer’s Tom Hanks flick “The Road to Perdition” was shot here. Filming almost hit a glitch…when Dreamworks suggested removing an old tree to make way for a driveway, the city balked. The scene was filmed; the tree stayed.

Evanston has dozens of trees at least a century old; and some even older than that.

Today, Evanston residents are even fighting a directive from the state’s Department of Transportation to replace obsolete traffic lights because it might mean uprooting some trees. So Evanston’s city Arborist Paul D’Agostino clearly has a rough job: he’s in charge of cutting down trees in a city of tree huggers.

“I’ve had to console people who were crying and hugging their tree and convince them that we were doing the right thing, that there was no choice in the matter.”

Like a handful of tree studded suburbs around Chicago and dozens of cities around the Great Lakes region, Evanston is experiencing a sad summer as Dutch elm disease claims dozens of trees more than half a century old and up to 70 feet tall.

Already more than one hundred Evanston elms have been found to have the killer fungus, and D’Agostino expects the toll to exceed two hundred. Once infected, a tree quickly begins to die…as the fungus blocks the vascular system that delivers water and nutrients to branches and leaves.

D’Agostino explains, standing near two dying elms in front of the Evanston Police Department…

“Both of these trees are in my estimation probably about 40 years old. These are pretty far along now in showing signs of disease…but the typical symptoms of yellowing and flagging leaves has now progressed to dead leaves and bare branches. We’ve got dying sucker growth along the main trunk which means the disease has spread into the main trunk and into the roots, so there’s no curing this tree at this point. The only way to solve this problem now is to remove the tree so it doesn’t spread to other nearby elms.”

(sound of sawing trees)

So five days a week, three crews of three men each are out on Evanston streets, taking down very old, very tall trees.

(sound of chain saw and crash)

For this relatively affluent, leafy suburb defined by its generous trees, the return of Dutch elm disease brings back bad memories of summers nearly 30 years ago, when hundreds of trees were cut down, destroying the canopies of tree tops that shade many of Evanston’s streets.

Still, there are 27,000 trees on city property in Evanston, and D’Agostino estimates three times that many on private property.

Today the suburb’s green and shade is created by a careful mix of hybrids and hardier trees, including Kentucky coffee, linden, gingko, honey locust and horse chestnut.

And the city is moving ahead with plans to continue replanting with diverse species to avoid future epidemics.

But ever a hotbed of activism, Evanston environmentalists of every stripe are on the case, badgering officials to do more than just identify and remove diseased trees.

Many want the city to inoculate the elms against the fungus.

“I’m a conservative republican, not at all a tree hugger. Al Gore and I would not mix ”

Virginia Mann has successfully organized the 13 other homeowners on her block to foot the bill to inject the elms on their street.

There are nine healthy elms on the block, and Mann and her neighbors have decided to adopt and inject three trees each year, at a cost of about $600 per tree.

“I know they add value to my community, I know they add value to my property, and I
know they keep my cooling costs down and I know there’s nothing I can do to replace them. So if you don’t take care of them, that’s it, they’re gone.”

While prognosis for the inoculated trees is excellent, there are no guarantees.
Dutch elm disease is spread both by beetles who carry the fungus on their hairs, and through root grafts between neighboring trees.

There is no way to protect the trees from root grafts. No one is sure why the disease is back and moving so aggressively.

Some citizens say, though inoculations can’t guarantee saving a tree, with only about 3,000 elms left in Evanston they’d rather try, than accept what the city officials seem to believe is the inevitable demise of the species in their suburb.
“Well, you can see my tree suffered an amputation this year.”

As efforts to restore bald eagle populations succeed (this eagle was rehabilitated and released in Colorado) researchers are finding that newer populations of bald eagles are nesting closer to humans. Photo courtesy of the USFWS.

A Minnesota research project might help get the bald eagle off the endangered species list. Any state with an eagle population needs a plan to monitor and protect the birds before they can be taken off the list. Learning where eagles nest might help protect the habitat they need to flourish. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Dan Gunderson reports:
http://environmentreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2002/08/gunderson_082602.mp3

Transcript

A Minnesota research project might help get the bald eagle off the
endangered species list. Any state with an eagle population needs a plan to
monitor and protect the birds before they can be taken off the list. Learning
where eagles nest might help protect the habitat they need to flourish.
The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Dan Gunderson reports:

Jim Grier knows eagles. For 44 years he’s watched the birds and climbed
into their nests. The North Dakota State University Zoology Professor is leading the study of Minnesota eagle habitat.

(plane engine starting)

The research starts in the spring. Grier spends hours flying in a four seat
Cessna with a Minnesota Department of Natural Resources pilot, looking for
eagle nests.

“We’re gonna come real close to this one Dan, coming right around on the
right side, we’ll lift the wing. Oh man, that’s an old nest too.”

An eagle sits in tree nearby. This location is marked on a map as an active
nesting site. There are more than 700 bald eagle pairs in Minnesota.
After the nests are located and mapped, the hard work starts on the ground.

Jeremy Guinn is a graduate student. He spends weeks driving, hiking, and
canoeing to eagle nests. He typically gets to two or three a day.
As he approaches a nest Guinn peers through binoculars looking for signs of
life.

“There’s at least two up there. The other one’s hunkered down.”

A young eagle looks down from a nest high atop a cottonwood tree in a
farmer’s pasture. The adult eagles are likely fishing in a nearby lake.
Guinn conducts a detailed study of the area around the nest.

“What kind of trees they use, what kind of forest they choose to place their
nest in. How close to the water they are. And also to determine the amount
of human activity that they choose to nest around.”

Eagles are more often choosing humans for neighbors. Because eagle
populations are growing so quickly, traditional forest nesting areas are
becoming crowded. Each pair of eagles needs their own territory, so young
pairs are often forced to look for less traditional nesting sites.

“I’ve seen eagles on powerlines, in the back yard of a cabin, some even
overlooking the cabin where the nest is hanging over the roof of a cabin. And also
more wild or traditional sites as you usually think of eagle nests.”

It appears bald eagles are quite adaptable. They need a tall tree to build a
nest, and water nearby where they can catch fish. But one of the key questions
is how well they tolerate human neighbors.

Jim Grier is heading up the study. The North Dakota State University Eagle researcher says each new generation of eagles seems a bit more tolerant.

“A lot of the eagle nests now that are in closer contact with human activity,
the young birds that grow up in those nests, looking down and seeing all
the human presence around them, as long as people aren’t shooting at them or
bothering them, as long as everybody is minding their own business the
eagles basically accept humans are part of the natural environment.”

The study Jim Grier is doing should provide a better understanding of how to
make sure eagle nesting sites are protected. States must meet two challenges before the bald eagle is taken off the endangered list. There must be a plan to monitor eagle populations in the future and eagle nesting habitat must be protected.

But monitoring eagles is labor intensive and expensive.

Eagle researchers say there needs to be a more efficient way of
checking on the birds. Some say enlisting volunteers to monitor nests may be
one answer. But there are questions about the scientific validity of that
method.

Researcher Jim Grier says it might be two or three years before everyone can
agree on a plan to protect eagles in the future.

Minnesota Department of Natural Resources nongame specialist Joan Galli
says she’s not predicting when the bald eagle will come off the endangered
species list.

“This is a species where the recovery is good and the news is good and
things are going well and you would think that it would be easy to delist. And that
has certainly not been the case, it’s been quite a challenge.”

The study of bald eagle habitat in Minnesota should be completed later this
year. The Department of Natural Resources and the Federal Fish and Wildlife
Service will use the results to develop a more comprehensive plan for
managing the bald eagle across the nation.

The United Nation’s Environment Program says the Great Lakes are cleaner. But a new report says the U.S. and Canada need to do more to prevent problems due to urban growth, agricultural runoff and invasions of exotic species. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:

Transcript

The United Nation’s Environment Program says the Great Lakes are cleaner.
But a new report says the U.S. and Canada need to do more to prevent
problems due to urban growth, agricultural runoff and invasions of exotic
species. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:

The U.N. report looks at what’s happened to the environment in the U.S. and
Canada for the last 30 years. It finds that there’s been significant progress
in protecting the ozone layer, reducing smokestack and auto emissions, and
slowing the loss of wetlands and other wildlife habitat.

The report in particular notes the progress made in cleaning up the Great Lakes. It
states that since 1972, the use, generation and release of several toxic
chemicals into the Great Lakes has been reduced by 71 percent. But, it also
finds that the two countries have not done a good job of stopping exotic
species such as the zebra mussel from damaging the environment of the lakes,
and it ticks off a list of toxic pollution problems from urban areas and
farms. The report concludes that North America’s global impact is disproportionately large compared to other countries in the world.

Transcript

Congress is considering legislation that would create national standards for fighting invasive species. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Jonathan Ahl reports:

Two Republican house members and a Democratic Senator are sponsoring the legislation. If the bill passes, it would create nationwide standards designed to keep foreign species from overrunning native plants and animals.

The legislation would extend the ballast water exchange standards currently in effect in the Great Lakes to the entire country. It would also improve screening protocols for importing plants and animals.

The bill also includes some funding to test new technologies. They include using chlorine, filters, and ultraviolet lights to kill off foreign species at some entry points to U.S. waterways.

A staff member for Michigan Senator Carl Levin says the bill is intended to be a first step toward developing international rules to stop the spread of invasive species. The lawmakers plan to introduce the bill when they return from their August recess.

As leaders prepare for the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, Canadian environmentalists say their country is no longer considered an important player on the world stage. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Karen Kelly reports:

Transcript

As leaders prepare for the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, Canadian environmentalists say their country is no longer considered
an important player on the world stage. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s
Karen Kelly reports:

John Bennett remembers when Canada was one of the so-called “good guys.” He’s the director for climate change and energy with the Sierra Club of Canada.
And he says 14 years ago, Canadian leaders were among the first to call for action on global warming. Now, the Canadian government is seeking exemptions
from the Kyoto climate change agreement.

“The leadership it’s showing is how do you wheedle out of an important environmental agreement? How do you weaken the agreement to the point that it’s
meaningless in order to make it cheaper and easier for Canada to achieve the targets.”

Environmentalists at home and abroad say Canada has been slow to take serious action.
Canadian leaders have delayed signing the Kyoto Protocol. They argue that Canada should be able to make fewer reductions in pollution because it exports so-called
clean energy – like hydroelectric power – to the United States.